What Good Is It?

I had an interesting conversation with a girl in my youth group who owns a pair of Nike Free Runs 5.0 (running shoes). Being a runner I own a pair myself, the most expensive pair of shoes I own, besides my boots. But I noticed something about them, unlike mine hers were in very good condition, they were clean, and not covered in dirt, marks, and scratches. I asked her about it, and she said, “I don’t use them for running.” This absolutely shocked me! What is the purpose of running shoes that you won’t run in! You are using shoes designed for a a specific purpose and throwing that away. They become a shadow of what they should be.

To some this may seem an over re-action, they’re just shoes right? Well to you maybe, but not to me, they are instruments to help take me on my daily runs. What if someone used your TV as a canvas to paint on, if you have kids maybe you have experienced something like that with walls or other places. What if you used a book as a paper weight, a plate for soup, i could go on! It doesn’t make sense to do those things, because every one of those items was made and given a purpose.

Now God gives us purpose in our lives too, and He gives us gifts to accomplish that purpose. Those gifts are a portion of His power and presence, so that we can experience Him and know Him more. Those moments when we encounter God, when we feel His presence, when the fir of God fills us up are beyond words or description, and those moments make us long for God’s fire, His presence more.

However, this can be a problem. The reason being that God doesn’t just let us experience Him so that we can get the Holy Spirit goose bumps, and feel good inside. Yes, God heals us, He changes us, He lifts us out of the darkness, He blesses us. But not just so we can go on our way and live our lives the same way we always have. It’s so that we can be a blessing.

You will be enriched in every way so that you can be generous on every occasion, and through us your generosity will result in thanksgiving to God.